Teenage Waistland, by Lynn Biederman and Lisa Pazer, $17.99.
Losing a few pounds is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions, but often the resolve is lost more easily than the weight. The teenagers in this engaging novel all are candidates for lap-band surgery, a procedure that pinches off all but the very top of the stomach to galvanize weight loss.
The procedure is usually available only for adults, so the teens in this novel are in a clinical trial. Their giddiness at the prospect of slimming down is mitigated by the discovery that their trial leader requires them to examine the psychological issues that contributed to their obesity.
Told from the viewpoints of several members of the group, including an overweight football player and a girl with an agoraphobic mother, “Teenage Waistland” is both funny and moving. It grapples honestly with the love-hate relationship many of us have with food and ourselves.
The novel includes an afterword by the director of an adolescent bariatric surgery department. Ages 12 and up, and also useful for parents of adolescents with eating disorders of any kind.
Pathfinder, by Orson Scott Card, $18.99.
Attention, science fiction fans: If a $20 bill is burning a hole in your pocket, extinguish the fire by buying a copy of the latest book from the popular author of “Ender’s Game.”
In this engaging tale, Card’s sleight of hand with time travel plays Jedi mind tricks on the reader. The plot follows two main narrators. One is a space pilot whose mission is to colonize an Earth-like planet. The other is a boy raised by a preternaturally intuitive man who relentlessly prepares his young charge for what seem like the most improbable circumstances.
The boy, Rigg, can see the past — the trails left by people through more than 11,000 years of history. His peculiar (and helpful) skill comes in handy when he teams up with others who have their own ways of manipulating space and time.
Like “Ender’s Game,” this story is rich and absorbing enough to appeal to readers who normally steer clear of this genre. And the enigmatic conclusion leaves the path open to a sequel. Ages 12 and up.
Trash, by Andy Mulligan, $16.99.
Raphael and his companions, Rat and Gardo, live in an unnamed impoverished country where they scratch out a living by sifting through the mountains of garbage in an urban dump.
They seek treasures modestly defined — “a cigarette carton, with a cigarette inside,” “a zucchini that was fresh enough for stew.” Then one day, Raphael finds a small leather bag with a map and a wallet crammed with 1,100 pesos — a fortune to a “rubbish boy.”
The discovery opens the door to the hard, greedy world of corrupt leaders eager to get their hands on that bag. Its contents turn out to be far more valuable than 1,100 pesos — precious enough to cost lives.
Taut and engaging, the story is loosely based on a dump in Manila where children scrabble to search for food and things to sell. Ages 12 and up.
Jackie’s Gift, by Sharon Robinson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis, $16.99.
As baseball great Jackie Robinson prepares for Christmas at his new house in Brooklyn, his neighbors — a Jewish family who firmly stopped a petition to prevent African-Americans from moving onto the block — admire the Robinson’s sparkling Christmas tree.
“Have you decorated your tree yet?” Jackie asks the neighbors’ young son. When the boy replies that his family has no tree, the Robinsons are puzzled.
So Jackie shows up a little later with a tree, putting the neighbors in an awkward situation. A Christian symbol in a Jewish household? How the families resolve the misunderstanding is a masterpiece of diplomacy.
The book, written by Robinson’s daughter, is based on a true story. Ages 4 and up.
